You wouldn’t think the Burning Man festival could still be mined for parody after having just wrapped its 29th annual installment, but some impressively sly copywriters at Quiznos have just cooked up a lighthearted (and not cheaply produced) faux movie trailer that effortlessly skewers the weeklong “Utopian” arts showcase.
Related: Welcome to the Gayborhood at Burning Man, 2015
Out of the Maze and into the Playa was posted to YouTube with little to no fanfare earlier this week, one day after Burning Man ran its course on Monday. The plot finds a cadre of hip, slightly airy young people sent to Burning Man as a test of their mettle. “Welcome to Burning Man,” crows a gruff Burner as the characters begin their jiggly journey. “The world outside is hanging on by a very thin, non-GMO, cruelty-free, oragnic hemp thread. Beyond this tent flap lies the beginning of your new lives as Burners.”
Well, in a news nugget that might make actual Burners feel even queasier than already do today, USA Today reports that Burning Man organizers aren’t particularly good sports when The Man in question decided to do a little burning back.
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Related: It’s Flashy, It’s Techy, It’s Super Gay — It’s “Burning Man: The Musical”
Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham claims they take issue with the clip and are strongly considering taking legal action — not, he says, because of the breezy mockery it makes of the 70,000-person event, but because the video (which includes a human car wash, a unicorn car that shoots fireballs, back rubs, and some dippy hippies wearing backpacks) is stealing the event’s intellectual property rights.
“We are pretty proactive about protecting our 10 principles,” Graham officiously claims, in a statement that doesn’t altogether jibe with the free-for-all spirit of the event. “We get quite a number of requests each year from companies wanting to gift participants with their product, or to capture imagery or video of their products at the event, and we turn them all down.”
Watch Burn Trial – Out of the Maze and into the Playa below:
jimmycurry01
If this is a parody then Quizno’s is well within their legal rights.
Giancarlo85
What’s Quiznos? I used to remember them being around everywhere. In my immediate area there were 6 or 7 of them. Now there is just 1. And that has been happening all over Southern California… many of them have closed. They made a lot of bad business decisions including over-expansion and they had a lot of issues with franchises.
Gothrykke
Don’t you hate it when Burners become Burnouts? For a group who claim to be about being outside, they certainly act like the rest of the…oh, who am I kidding? These people are just awful, like the rest of their trust fund brats and hippie lover wannabes. True hippies were all trust fund brats and fools who got sucked into the free love movement, so, good job, you fit right in.
I loved the parody.
Billy Budd
They are no different from rednecks.
jwtraveler
@Gothrykke: Amazing how you can collectively sum up several million people in a few dozen words. Analysis and insight based on absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. That’s truly the American way.
For the record, I think a lawsuit would be ridiculous. But this “parody” is really just a commercial. Don’t forget that.
Josh447
It’s an ad and the promoters are in on it, probably produced it. Sue, my ass; publicity is the only way anyone would ever watch the film. Burning Man has officially abandoned its roots and capitalism-cashed in on its now huge money making product. It’s in the blood. You go girls.
Josh447
Jwtraveler
I hate it when Republican behavior starts effecting the general public.
Josh447
Jwtraveler
Rephrase: I hate it when looney Republican behavior wears off on the general public.
Randy Judd
Odd that anti corporate celebration pays attention to it at all. Now the response brings it in to full focus.
Tracy Pope
What a bunch of crap. The Borg – Burning Man Organization – are corporate only out to protect their interests. In 2006 the Belgian Waffle (Uchronia) was in a Lexus commercial. Everyone was up in arms but it turned out the whole thing was planned by the artist’s company and Lexus. btw, one night before it burned, Uchronia was the most amazing club I’ve ever been in. Insane DJs , sound and lights. The Borg need to lighten up. Burning Man has been made fun of in parody for at least 10 years. Most of it has been online or television programs.
rosebaker75
????Start your home business right now. Spend more time with your family and earn. Start bringing 78$/hr just on a c0mputer. Very easy way to make your life happy and earning continuously. Start here….
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Chris
Sue? For a parody? Good luck with that…..
Ron Jackson
err…so what’s gay about it?
Scott Redner
Who cares, it just an event they use as an excuse to take illicit drugs and run around naked, the gays had already been doing it for years at clubs…
Bisexual-Transwoman
@Gothrykke: Well said. LMAO the parody commercial/video was funny! You described the whole hippie/raver/burning man scene perfectly!
Bisexual-Transwoman
@Giancarlo85: A lot of them here on the east coast have closed too. Even ones that were popular and had people visiting them all the time daily.
NateOcean
They’re all unique individuals. All 70,000 of them.
Giancarlo85
@Bisexual-Transwoman: They made a lot of poor business decisions. And the entire company was in Chapter 11 for quite some time. I’m not sure if they emerged from that yet. Subway is now in the same trap with so many franchises basically eating away at each others profits…. along with the same old meat and bread with a laundrylist of strange ingredients one would only find in a chemistry lab.
Nice to see another trans person on here 🙂 Keep on posting 🙂
Captain Obvious
Video wasn’t funny, the burning kiddies sound like crybabies, and Quiznos is getting free advertising.
Also since some mom with a toddler just won a case about using a song in a parody video it makes this all moot because nothing can be done against them.
Parodies are protected from now on. This is a parody, it obnoxiously says so in the title. Move on, burnouts.